Southwest Iowa bike riders featured in TV commercial (video)

A small town in southwest Iowa is getting national recognition in a new TV commercial. A taco restaurant in Mineola is the destination for what’s called a “taco ride,” as bicyclists pedal ten miles from Council Bluffs along the Wabash Trace Nature Trail. In the commercial, the beef taco meat is replaced with turkey.

Jen Ehresmann at Jennie-O Turkey says they wanted authentic responses, “Rather than hiring a bunch of actors and actresses, we wanted to make sure the people in our commercial were reacting to the tacos themselves and were truly riders and truly local.” The commercial features the event where dozens, sometimes hundreds of riders meet weekly — regardless of weather — and bicycle from Council Bluffs to Mineola to eat tacos.

It’s billed as the world’s longest-running weekly social bike ride and is listed as one of the 10 best weekly rides in the world by Bicycling Magazine.

“There was definitely a level of pride and protection about the taco ride and about Mineola specifically,” Ehresmann says. “I hope we did treat it very respectfully and I know that we had a great time.”

Mineola is located in Mills County in the Loess Hills. Jennie-O Turkey is based in Willmar, Minnesota, and is one of the largest turkey processors in the world.